US Postal Service has $3.8 bln loss in fiscal '09

[galileoreloaded]

Source: Reuters

* 2009 saw unprecedented mail volume decline

* Agency cut $6 bln in costs, 115 mln work hours

* Seeks shorter delivery week, further benefits relief

* Without changes, sees 2010 loss of $7.8 billion

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSN1651736120091116

---

What, pray tell, does "benefits relief" mean do you suppose?

[liberal N proud]

1. Post Office is one example of a government competing against private

I realize it is somewhat privatized but it is still subsidized by the tax payer and it doesn't seem to be hurting UPS or Fed-X

Now for the losses, this organization needs some serious lean thinking to address its inefficiencies.

[Steerpike]

2. USPS

What the Post Office does is keep the cost of snail mail and packages down. Without USPS the private carriers would raise their rates to the stratosphere!

[tomm2thumbs]

3. that is true I believe - or there would be only one game in town, particularly UPS

and then FedEx Ground is helping a little too, but look how long it took for them to even get into the mix

[liberal N proud]

7. Kind of like the insurance companies are doing to us now

[Deja Q]

5. You mean, if the government did a public insurance option, the 20+ private vendors wouldn't be hurt?

:evilgrin:

There are inefficiencies, but for shipping packages I'd much rather go USPS than UPS. I've had far more goods damaged by UPS... And FedEx's prices are so fucking outrageous -- methinks they're inefficient if they have to charge so much. Cushy CEO job?

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. My dad was a mail carrier for over 20 years and even back then the management was disastrous, not

only for fiscal reasons but they were just darned dangerous demanding that routes be finished faster than they possibly could be, resulting in a rise of accidents among rural route carriers.

[Iowa]

56. If an organization is floundering, the culprit is usually incompetent management.

Most managers would improve their organizations dramatically if they would do absolutely nothing.

[NashVegas]

8. Fed Ex and UPS Deal in Packages and Only When Ordered

US Mail has to deal with letters as well, sending out mail carriers to every street in America and in most cities, every house, 5-6 days a week.

US Mail picks up and processes letters 5-6 days a week at various spots around town, 2x a day.

That's a shitload more time in labor than Fed-Ex and UPS have.

Want them to run lean? Easy. Eliminate delivered mail and force anyone who wants reliable service can rent a PO box.

[liberal N proud]

13. Fed-Ex and UPS deliver to the home

There are two and three of each of the trucks running in the neighborhood everyday when I get home from work.

USPS only delvers once Monday - Saturday. The letters should be added revenue the others do not get, so one would think.

You don't want them to stop delivering, the energy impact to this nation alone if you delivery was stopped would be astronomical, everyone driving their SUV's to the post office to collect their mail each day.

There are a lot more inefficiencies in the post office than home delivery.

[defendandprotect]

21. AND each delivery person is clocked every second as to what they're doing . . .

[NashVegas]

61. Only When Contracted

If they don't have any packages to be delivered in your neighborhood, they won't be in your neighborhood.

[Occulus]

27. The USPS receives no taxpayer dollars n/t

[Freddie Stubbs]

30. Correct. It hasn't since the 1980's

[mbperrin]

31. Actually, the USPS receives no tax dollars of any kind.

They provide full service, unlike UPS or Fed-Ex; they check your house for pickup every day. They check on elderly folks on their route to make sure they're okay, and yes, that's an official part of their job. They have numerous options and rates, unlike the very few sizes offered by the others.

Now, if they eliminate daily pickups, and if they only go to the addresses where they deliver and scoot out of there with no further interaction, and if they eliminate the tiny little 40 something cent rates and deliver everything for dollars per envelope instead, and if they put large numbers of rural Americans in do-not-deliver zones, and do away with general delivery, well, then, they probably will make more money than they do now.

Disclaimer: I do not nor ever have worked for the Postal Service, but we use them daily for an average of 11 packages outgoing, and could not be more pleased with the price or the service.

[liberal N proud]

50. Does UPS and Fed-Ex have do-not-deliver zones?

[Selatius]

35. One source of heavy costs: They have to rent space on UPS and FedEx aircraft for shipping.

They do not possess their own fleet of planes to move goods around. That alone is probably costing a fair amount of change.

[Yupster]

63. Is there any reason why they deliver six days a week?

Nowadays if you have something that has to get there soon you use UPS or Fedex anyway.

Why not deliver mail once a week?

More and more stuff is going to be going on-line so the Post Office is fighting a losing battle while it wastes money, and pollutes the planet.

[brendan120678]

4. There was a story here in our local paper...

a few weeks ago about our local Post Office facility, which is having much of its sorting/distribution responsibilities taken away.

In the mean time, that leaves many idle workers. I think it said that there are somewhere between 10 - 15 employees who are paid to sit in a room for 8 hours, plus breaks, and play games, nap, or watch TV because their union contract forbids them from being laid off and there is nowhere to transfer them to at the present time.

[defendandprotect]

22. Right . .. the fault is with the unions !!!!

:evilgrin:

[HereSince1628]

47. What the fuck? I don't get that at all.

[defendandprotect]

51. It was sarcasm . . . but I didn't know I needed the actual sign . . .

:sarcasm:


:)

[HereSince1628]

9. That's what happens when corporate junk mailings get subsidized

By weight junk mail is about 90% of my mail. The notion of making up by volume what you don't earn by the piece is stupid when it comes to the mail.

[Sinistrous]

11. Agree. A serious inrcease in the rates for junk mail

would help us all. All that is necessary is to get past the howling from the catalog industry and magazines.

[high density]

19. Junk mail...

Mass mailers get lower rates because the company preparing the mail has presorted it, barcoded it, or both. It's less work on the USPS to route this mail. Anybody can do it with the proper volume, permits, and software. I do think that the standard mail class should be dropped for everybody but non-profits. Standard mail has gone at the same speed as first class for as long as I've known and there is no reason to be giving those discounts. I've seen companies abuse it, too. Standard mail is supposed to be limited to "generic" mail, not personalized things like statements.

[HereSince1628]

42. But isn't the real expense of the post office the letter carriers?

All the sorting and bar-coding is great for getting mail on-board trucks or planes, but it doesn't lower the number of miles and stops on a letter carrier's route.

Rural delivery around my farm in Jefferson Co. WI probably averages just a bit under 2 mail stops per mile. Although it looks like some of the rural letter carriers drive their own cars, the reimbursement costs for fuel and car maintenance can't be cost effective at junk mail rates.

[high density]

45. I dunno

I suspect a letter carrier could be "profitable" with a dozen Priority or Express mail packages delivered every hour in their route. Certainly your delivery route is probably subsidized more than average. I don't know what the break even point would be, maybe $2.50 per letter? At that price USPS would not get any of that junk mail business to begin with, yet they'd still need to show up at your house and the others on your route with "non-junk" mail regularly. Private companies like UPS and FedEx have special rural and residential surcharges that easily tack $11 onto a shipment to an address such as yours.

[defendandprotect]

24. Agree -- and the 90% figure is LOW if you add in catalogues . . . !!!

The Post Office could very well compete with FED EX or Parcel Post . . .

they've obviously been kept from doing that, IMO --

Junk mail should be ended -

Also, I've heard that the Post Office puts their own personnel into some of these

big mailing houses to assist!!

THIS is all garbage -- we're being lied to.

And postal works have been tortured for decades by corrupt management squeezing them.

Just keep in mind that Medicare is being PREVENTED from bargaining with the pharmaceutical

companies .... NOT to protect the consumer, but to protect BIG PHARMA's profits!!!!

[onehandle]

10. Mail is too cheap. You can send a letter coast to coast for 44 cents.

That is a Hell of a value.

[BennyD]

37. No, it's too expensive! Increased rates drive people to pay everything online - like me! n/t

[onehandle]

59. I pay everything online because it's a readily available and usually free resource.

But not too many years ago this was not true.

You and I would still be licking stamps and it would just be a few bucks a month.

Pretty darn cheap. Mail should be at least a buck. I use about three stamps a year, so it would be no skin off my nose.

A buck to send something clear across the country? Still pretty cheap.

[wilt the stilt]

12. what has really happened

is that we pay our bills via online and that has led to a serious decline in mail. Think about 15-20 bills a month per family or single person no longer sending it out via mail. There is you 3.8 billion.

[Pab Sungenis]

15. The problem with that idea

is that the USPS actually takes a loss on each one-ounce first class letter, which the majority of bill payments are.

I'd like to see what the pay scale for the CEO and other management of the USPS is, and then subtract 60% of that from the loss, then see where we stand.

The Post Office needs to be de-privatized.

[Dreamer Tatum]

48. If USPS management worked for free for a decade, you still wouldn't make a dent.

Honestly. You think exec pay explains an almost $4B deficit?


:rofl:

[Pab Sungenis]

52. No, not entirely..

But it's the best place to start.

[Dreamer Tatum]

53. No, it's probably the worst

You want to slash pay 60%, and you expect these people to take the necessary actions to save the other, oh, $3.79B?

Don't think so.

And no, you can't replace the entire management of the USPS without completely screwing up delivery.

[mopinko]

29. yup. 20 page cell phone bills- gone

almost all our bills are completely online now. no more statements from the insurance companies, utility bills, nothin. the only thing left is the odd doctor bill.

[ieoeja]

41. Worse yet, advertising moved to the internet (plus fewer ads during recession).

Junk mail provided bigger revenue than letters and bills. The USPS is facing the same problem as newspapers. They don't sell ads, but they do sell delivery of those ads.

[madrchsod]

14. postal management sucks

they could`t manage themselves out of a mail bag...

[BennyD]

40. I agree and they should look at UPS, DHL and FedEX for some tips. n/t

[optimator]

16. the military had a trillion dollar loss

lets start fighting this propaganda

[Lorien]

39. Exactly. nt

[bertman]

17. It's a PUBLIC SERVICE, people--NOT a profit center. Where else are you going to get your

letter delivered 3000 miles away in two days for 44 CENTS???

This is the old anti-government rhetoric reheated and served up as goulash.

Yes, the USPS could use some more efficiency in its operations, I'm sure--just like every business. But, how many of these corporate clowns would want to pay the bulk mail rates if their worthless flyers were sent out by FedEx or UPS?? Not many, I'm guessing.

[WriteDown]

28. Gmail, Hotmail, Ymail?

:evilgrin:

I believe they are all less than 44 cents.

[Thothmes]

54. Only if the people you are communicating with have a computer

If not, do it the old fashion way, a hand written letter to a loved one.

[WriteDown]

58. I haven't written a handwritten letter in over a decade...

but all my older relatives have long since passed.

[mbperrin]

36. We mail watches to anywhere in the country for $1.37 first class mail.

Try that with email.

Delivery from west Texas to New York - 2 days; same for LA; extra day for Hawaii; next day to Dallas, Chicago, and St. Louis.

[high density]

46. I've seen USPS media mail go New Mexico to Maine Saturday -> Monday

FedEx and UPS can't match that.

[bertman]

49. Good point, mbperrin.

[Iowa]

57. +1

[glinda]

18. Can't really feel bad for the staff stealing some of our package's though.....

[fob]

20. Big deal. That's what, 4 days in Iraq? Ending the bullshit "war" really

does solve a lot of problems. There would be money for healthCARE, USPS, gold bars for each person, etc.

[mac56]

23. I have long contended that if they'd sell advertising on postage stamps

we'd be able to send letters for a nickel again.

Though the cost of a postage stamp is already a bargain....

[brendan120678]

25. That may not be a bad idea...

I've never thought about using stamps as advertising.
I can certainly see how it could lead to a drop in the price of postage.

[mac56]

26. think of the collector market too!

Revenue streams!

[Lorien]

38. True. It would be great for illustrators and graphic designers

I have a friend who has illustrated many sets of stamps for them. As long as the ads were tasteful and artfully done I think it would work out well for everyone.

[BennyD]

32. Back when the P.O. went to $0.32 stamps, I started paying all my bills online.

The P.O. is their own worst enemy with the continual increase. It drives more and more people to do as I have done and pay everything you can online.

[Doremus]

55. Try sending your payments in with UPS or FedEx then get back to us about how expensive they are.

[DU GrovelBot]

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[Lorien]

34. USPS is a critical service for many small businesses. $7.8 Billion is a

pittance compared to what we spend on the military and our wars of choice. I say make management more efficent, don't take it out on carriers or shorten the delivery week. It is one of those services that the government SHOULD subsidize to keep the economy going strong.

[sketchy]

43. Well stated

I'll second that.

[bertman]

60. I agree with Lorien. It's a service I'm happy to pay taxes for.

[madville]

44. They should end Saturday service at least

They should end Saturday delivery at least. Automatically save 17% on operating costs(fuel, pay, equipment maint., etc). I guess that would be rationing services to save money so many will say that is evil lol.

I have a question though. It was stated above that the USPS doesn't receive taxpayer money. They have had some growing losses lately, where do they get the money to cover the shortfalls? Do they have cash surpluses or are they borrowing the money from somewhere?

[beyond cynical]

62. A relic from the days of the pony express...

Backward thinking always produces negative results.